CAPUMA to hold annual Winter Social with special guests from Microsoft and Yyoga
Courier Editor
The Capilano University Marketing Association (CAPUMA) will be celebrating their 10th anniversary this year with their sixth annual Winter Social event titled Premier Branding: Break the Barriers, Build the Brand.
“We decided that because it is our 10th anniversary, and our birthday, we wanted to have a bigger celebration,” said CAPUMA President Rosemary Preckel. The 2018 Winter Social boasts presentations by industry giants such as Shelley Staples, client executive at Microsoft, and Yyoga President Carey Dillen, who will discuss the importance of branding among many other things.
Following the keynote presentations, the event will hold a networking session accompanied by food and drink and a “special surprise” at the end. “The Winter Social is CAPUMA’s biggest event that we hold annually,” said Adam Daher, director of finance for the association. “It’s also an opportunity for students and others to network and create connections.”
Although advertised primarily to business students at CapU, the event is open for anyone to attend. This year CAPUMA has also invited other universities to join, including BCIT, SFU, Langara College, KPU and Douglas College. “The main reason behind that is we wanted to be able to provide our students with a bigger opportunity to network with other business students,” said Preckel.
CAPUMA started as the Marketing Association of Capilano Students (MACS) back in 2008. The association has grown considerably and has since become an official collegiate chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA). “The reason we went under the AMA is to get further support where faculty may not be able to give it,” said Preckel. “It’s kind of like having an industry parent. We get guidelines, we get assistance with branding and marketing.” CapU and BCIT are the only two student-run associations within Canada to be a part of the AMA.
For their 2018 Winter Social, the association is hoping that 100 people will be in attendance, doubling the number the event has seen in previous years.
Preckel acknowledged the amount of support from other business associations at CapU, as well as David Amos and Andrea Eby, both instructors in the School of Business. “They support our success,” she said. “They also just provide assistance … or if we need more expertise in a certain area, such as reaching out to some of those speakers. Microsoft, for example, was a connection that Andrea had.”
The importance of holding networking events, explained Daher, is to give people an opportunity to create connections that will help them post-graduation. “In life, everything is connections,” he said. “It’s a very valuable experience for a student.”
He also noted that CAPUMA is working to expand outside their bubble of business students. Preckel emulated this, saying “anybody that’s not a business student may like to see a company like Microsoft or Yyoga in a different light, look at the way they’re advertising. It actually relates to you, you’re the consumer that they’re going after.”
The CAPUMA Winter Social is being held on Nov. 1 at The Pipe Shop in North Vancouver and will run from 5:30-10 pm. Student tickets are available for purchase at $25 each and industry professional tickets at $30.
Preckel and Daher both acknowledged that networking isn’t always the easiest thing to do, but both strongly encourage students to attend the event and emerge themselves in an atmosphere where creating connections is made possible. “It’s not just industry professionals there, but a ton of students like us,” said Preckel.
“We were once those nervous, shy kids … and sometimes just getting that courage to go to your first networking event and really immerse yourself so you gain that confidence. You don’t really know that you’re good at it until you start,” she said.
CAPUMA’s Premier Branding: Break the Barriers, Build the Brand is a 19+ event.
For more information please visit their event page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/292709281330703/